the minions made $5.2b. here's how:

So…

I wrote a longform yesterday on X

And people are LOVING it.

The best part about being a creator is seeing your work get feedback.

Anyways - I promised you guys a little secret in that longform

The secret content strategy the Minions franchise use to keep making plots - villains and characters worth billions of dollars.

Here it is:

> 5/ The Content Secret

Creating good, long-lasting content relies on one thing:

Being completely fucking random.

Now - I’ve seen a trend go around of brand “predictability”

Of how you need to have content habits and values across every piece of media.

^ This isn’t true (to an extent)

If you’re going to write novel content that makes your reader think - you need to be a bit unpredictable.

And that’s what the directors of the minions do.

Here’s a breakdown of 3 villains in the franchise that have made the most viewer impact.

Despicable Me 1 | $543m

The first villain - Vector - is the son of a bank owner.

Vector’s dressed in an all - orange tracksuit, rocking funky weapons.

At the very start of the first movie - Vector is known to be one of the newest and greatest villains in the world.

For stealing the Pyramid Of Giza with nobody even noticing.

Vector is a perfect example of showing, not telling.

When you’re presenting something

• an idea

• a villain

• a character

• a transformation

The yap is never enough.

You need to SHOW proof of concept.

Despicable Me 2 $970m

This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

With one of my favorite VILLAINS of all time.

El Macho.

Within the first 30m of the movie, we get a soft introduction of him.

Eduardo Perez barges into Gru and Lucy’s cupcake shop- acting like any normal, kind business owner.

After asking for 100 cupcakes, he leaves. But he re enters to say one final thing, in the classic Mexican accent:

“Welcome, to the mall family..”

Gru looks shocked after realizing that he is one of the most dangerous villains of all time - the presumed dead, El Macho.

El macho shows us that you need to have a strong backstory if you’re going to be feared.

Or - in this case - loved by your audience.

Minions | $1.15b

This is another personal favorite of mine.

Mainly because of the AMAZING villain(s.)

Including Scarlet Overkill.

This movie is the highest earning one in the entire franchise.

And that’s because of the strength of the antagonist.

Scarlet is presented early on as the “underdog” of the villain world.

Being one of the ONLY female villains there is to do what men can do.

And her biggest desire?

Becoming the queen of England.

So she enlists the help of the minions for that.

Unfortunately, Bob ends up becoming the king of England on accident.

But he gives the crown to Scarlet.

And then? Scarlet decides to torture them.

She will do ANYTHING to get her way. And even more to make sure that nobody stops her.

She’s a great example of consistency and perseverance in all aspects of life.

You won’t get anywhere being soft. You need to be tough. Be consistent. And be ruthless to get your way.

Just.. don’t go torturing people.

I only decided to tell you about these three villains because of how they impacted me the most.

The other villains in the franchise — Belle Bottom, Balthazar Bratt, and Maxime Le Mal haven’t grown on me juust yet.

But the common factor between all of these villains?

They’re creative. They’re unpredictable.

They have their own unique set of morals, visions and goals.

And they’re all COMPLETELY different from one another.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll know how against repurposing content I am.

And Minions is just another example of that.

Repurposing is stupid.

Innovating ~ though? It’s the way to make billions.

Powers to you,

PZ

PS: If you want to learn how to leverage your ideas to make money - reply to this email with “SLAM” and I’ll send you more info.